OK here it goes. I was so set on buying an MSI R9 290X Gaming OC last week. I contacted the retailer and I just missed out on the last stock. it was at a price of PhP 29,000.00 (+/- USD 650.00). I'm gonna have to wait until late March or early April for the new stock to arrive and it's not guaranteed I'm gonna get one since I'm on a wait list. The price isn't also guaranteed. It might go up or down. I don't really want to go over the PhP 30,000 mark so I never thought about buying the 780 Ti but then I stumbled upon a used reference Zotac GTX 780 Ti being sold for PhP 28,000.00 (+/- USD 630.00). It's 4 months old and still has shop warranty which I like. Regular prices for reference 780 Ti cards are around PhP 32,000.00 (+/- USD 720.00)

I've been reading W1z's reviews and it seems the 780 Ti is the better option, power consumption wise and performance wise. I mostly game and do some Photoshop although I used do dedicate my 7970 to WCG when there were still those GPU work units. I'd go for AMD if those WUs were still available although it seems they won't be coming back soon. I've been using AMD/ATi cards for as long as I can remember so I'm quite reluctant to change over to the "Green " side. Oh and my next upgrade after this will be 2560x1600 or 1560x1440 monitor although I guess it doesn't matter which card it's gonna be.

Well we all know that the WU of the AMD cards is a powerful contender, but for gaming etc if you can get the 780Ti at nearly the same price as a 290X then I wouldn't hesitate much, especially since you don't have any option.

Well we all know that the WU of the AMD cards is a powerful contender, but for gaming etc if you can get the 780Ti at nearly the same price as a 290X then I wouldn't hesitate much, especially since you don't have any option.

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I had a chat with the retailer last friday and he mentioned that all the cards they had available sold out within a week and there are 22 other interested buyers on their wait list for the next batch of supplies. I'm guessing I'm the 23rd on that list.

What I'm also liking about the reference 780 Ti is that it blows hot air out of the case. I think the last Nvidia card I used was an AGP card when I had a P4 socket 478 PC.

OP, If you want one that badly - hop on a boat to Hong Kong. I was just there 2 weeks ago and 'Golden Computer Center' has a decent amount of stock. The only thing the merchants there arent too happy about is bartering. I bought 5 250GB Evo's - Best the guy could do was give me $10 off each one which doesnt make a blind bit of difference. No amount of haggling would get him to drop his price further.

OP, If you want one that badly - hop on a boat to Hong Kong. I was just there 2 weeks ago and 'Golden Computer Center' has a decent amount of stock. The only thing the merchants there arent too happy about is bartering. I bought 5 250GB Evo's - Best the guy could do was give me $10 off each one which doesnt make a blind bit of difference. No amount of haggling would get him to drop his price further.

OP, If you want one that badly - hop on a boat to Hong Kong. I was just there 2 weeks ago and 'Golden Computer Center' has a decent amount of stock. The only thing the merchants there arent too happy about is bartering. I bought 5 250GB Evo's - Best the guy could do was give me $10 off each one which doesnt make a blind bit of difference. No amount of haggling would get him to drop his price further.

I think the Philippines is about 2-3hrs boat ride away

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by plane is 45 mins away so by boat, depending on speed, by speed boat, about 6 hrs non stop. i wouldnt be happy with that journey though with winds and waves in your path. plus travel expenses, and so.. not a economical move. i know that cause im a ship captain. from my avatar. OP, what asus dcu2 or sapphire tri-x version? if you want the msi cooler, i saw on ebay one guy selling 290 msi cooler. you can buy ref card and slap that cooler. but, of course, the risk of voiding warranty is there.

Bad news though it seems I missed out on that used 780 Ti. I haven't got a reply from the seller through PM or through text message. I did find a Zotac 780 Ti for PhP 30,500.00 and an MSI R9 290X Gaming OC for PhP 30,000.00. It still seems like the 780 Ti is the way to go.

The card arrived last night and its now plugged in. Here's a pic of it unboxed.

I'm loving the card. It's the best card I've ever had the chance to hold/use in terms of build quality and I'm hoping in terms of performance too. It's just different when you're just looking at pictures compared to actually holding the card. I might never sell this card and just keep it as a "collection".

Having said all that, I'm having a minor issue though. When my 23" monitor is plugged in, everything runs great. I'm using a DVI cable for this connection. When I connect the TV to it, it only reaches the windows logo screen and after that it blacks out and I have to hard reset the PC to make it work. I'm using an HDMI cable for the TV btw, and when I plug in the cable there's this weird intermittent buzzing sound like something is shorting out. I've never had this issue with my 7970. Any advise you could give me?

EDIT: nvm... Windows update somehow f**ked up the OS I and noticed that the HDMI cable was touching the metal part of the case. I decided to format and re-install the OS and I adjusted the GPU a bit. PROBLEMS FIXED!

OK here it goes. I was so set on buying an MSI R9 290X Gaming OC last week. I contacted the retailer and I just missed out on the last stock. it was at a price of PhP 29,000.00 (+/- USD 650.00). I'm gonna have to wait until late March or early April for the new stock to arrive and it's not guaranteed I'm gonna get one since I'm on a wait list. The price isn't also guaranteed. It might go up or down. I don't really want to go over the PhP 30,000 mark so I never thought about buying the 780 Ti but then I stumbled upon a used reference Zotac GTX 780 Ti being sold for PhP 28,000.00 (+/- USD 630.00). It's 4 months old and still has shop warranty which I like. Regular prices for reference 780 Ti cards are around PhP 32,000.00 (+/- USD 720.00)

I've been reading W1z's reviews and it seems the 780 Ti is the better option, power consumption wise and performance wise. I mostly game and do some Photoshop although I used do dedicate my 7970 to WCG when there were still those GPU work units. I'd go for AMD if those WUs were still available although it seems they won't be coming back soon. I've been using AMD/ATi cards for as long as I can remember so I'm quite reluctant to change over to the "Green " side. Oh and my next upgrade after this will be 2560x1600 or 1560x1440 monitor although I guess it doesn't matter which card it's gonna be.

So which, in your opionion, would be the better choice?

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OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I am also from the Philippines, but there is a shop here in Cebu that sells Zotac Cards brand new with less price than your purchase.